


The Other Side

by aesphantasmal



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, M/M, Other, based on awalkingparadox11 (tumblr)'s the other side animatic, ben is alive tho, canon typical juno having issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:43:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22305088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aesphantasmal/pseuds/aesphantasmal
Summary: There are a few things Princess Juno Steel of Hyperion Kingdom has noticed about his conversation partner.
Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel
Comments: 29
Kudos: 57





	The Other Side

**Author's Note:**

> hey yall  
> 1) this is based on awalkingparadox11 (tumblr)'s animatic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP_TaaBHVXU) which is really too good to be associated with this  
> 2) ive barely written fanfic in years so this is gonna be very rambly and wildly ooc probably let's go!

His sleeves were too short. That was the first thing I noticed about him. The kinda puffy top half was pulled a bit too tightly so it sat below his elbow. Once I'd seen it, I kept seeing him adjust it every few minutes.

I guess it's the hardest part to fake. A posh voice, the general air of entitlement, you could practice those. You could just be born with the looks some nobles spend so much money failing to get. Names are easy enough. Nobody actually remembers the name of every noble and Rex Glass sounds just pretentious enough to fit right in. But the clothes need a lot of money to get someone who'll tailor them to fit perfectly, and that's pretty hard to bullshit, especially if you're mostly limbs like he is.

The second tip off was that he was concerned about the wellbeing of people who weren't him and didn't directly impact his quality of life. 

"There's been food shortages in the south lately," he said. "I would have thought the crown would be more concerned about that."

"Crown isn't worried about anything, Rex. It's a lump of metal. Not that the person who's head it's on cares either. Would mean she had to think about something going on outside the castle," I said. I tried to keep most of my actual feelings about what my mother was letting happen to the people she was supposed to rule under wraps with this many people around. 

"And you and your brother can't do anything about it?"

"Nope. Benten’s tried talking to her, but she’s nothing if not completely unwilling to listen to any good ideas that might help people. And everyone administering the region will only take orders from her. They all pretty much know she hates me enough that she wouldn't pass on any of my suggestions, so no use trying to pass off my ideas as coming from her."

"And you're  _ sure _ it isn't worth trying?" I'll give Rex credit, if I hadn't already realised something was up, I might not have noticed his mask of polite concern slip for a second. I think he noticed me reacting, though, because he laughs — it sounds fake, but in the exact same way everyone else's here does — and says "Of course, I know you have more important things to worry about —"

"I've tried," I say, so quietly that for a split second I think he hasn't heard me, until he stops mid sentence and looks at me. I continue, only slightly louder so he can hear me a bit clearer. "I mean, I haven't tried recently, but there's a point where you've got to know when to quit before you push too far, you know?" I don't make eye contact with him. My eyes scan the crowd and I can feel Rex's gaze follow mine. My mother is still sat at the head table with the same yes-men as always. Ben is dancing around the room with the same partner as before, and he looks happier than I've seen him in a while. Rita is standing by the food table, sneaking snacks whenever she thinks nobody’s looking.

“It's awfully stuffy in here," Rex says, in a low, conspiratorial tone. "I might go and get some fresh air, if you'd care to join me."

I look at him, then back across the room. I know what he's trying to imply. What I don't know is what he actually wants, or, hell, who he really is. But I can take a few guesses. Sneaking into the palace is one thing, but posing as a noble and then starting a conversation with me is a whole different level. If he's willing to do something that risky I doubt he's doing it for money, and it's well executed enough that I doubt he did it all on his own. All of that adds up to a short list of reasons why he might want to get me on my own and a long list of reasons why I shouldn't let him.

There's something in his smile. A fox's smile, all sharp teeth and danger and yet somewhere in my gut, I don't feel like this man intends to hurt me. My eyes flick over the room again. Nobody's looking at me, expect for a couple of seconds where I make eye contact with Ben. He only has time to look between me and Rex and give me a wink before he's spinning round and facing in the opposite direction.

"Yeah, it is pretty stuffy in here," I say. He smiles wider, and it well and truly reaches his eyes this time, and my heart starts beating twice as fast.

He leads me onto a balcony down the corridor from the hall. It's a lot quieter out here, and the fresh air helps me clear my head a bit. Fighting the newly reinvigorated shreds of my self preservation yelling at me to run, I lean on the balcony next to him.

"It's beautiful out here," he says. I guess he's right. The castle is on a hill above the city. It's a clear night, so you can see for miles and miles, from where the shining houses of the centre city give way to stores and smaller homes, then to the city walls, then the slums that spread out from there, then even past that to the fields beyond.

"As long as you don't look too closely," I respond. He raises an eyebrow. "I mean, I don't want to know what people think of us when they look up here."

He laughs nervously. "I'm sure it's not as bad as you're imagining." He places a hand over mine on the balcony. "I can't imagine anyone thinking so badly of someone as beautiful as you."

There's barely an inch between us, and I'm not sure who closes the gap first. For a second, it's like time stops, as I grab him and pull him closer as his arms circle my waist. All thoughts of who he really is and what he really wants and all my doubts and fears disappear for a second, replaced with a kind of floating feeling. Then the moment's over, and I feel his lips against my lips and his skin against my skin — and if I didn't already know he wasn't who he said he was, the roughness that comes with not being able to stay inside all day would have given him away. But I keep kissing him for a few more seconds anyway. What? It's a good kiss.

But eventually, we break apart, and take a few deep breaths.

"Rex?"

"Hmm?"

"You know…" I lean an inch back. "You're almost as good of a liar as you think you are."

"I have no idea what you mean," he says, but I can tell from his face that he knows exactly what I mean.

"I know you're not a noble."

His face drops for a second, then returns to a more neutral expression. "What gave me away?" The exaggerated accent drops from his voice a bit, and his expression is more focused now, eyes sharper. His stance becomes more defensive, even if he barely moves back.

I consider how I'm going to answer his question for a few seconds. "Nobles don't care enough about ordinary people to make anything that could be called small talk about problems affecting them." It's not the technically correct answer, but I'm pretty sure it's the biggest giveaway. "I'm guessing you're with the rebels?"

He laughs. "So, the princess figures me out, after all this time of me going unnoticed." He leans in a little more. "And yet, I don't hear you calling the guards."

"If you wanted to kill me you would have done it while my guard was down. We're out of earshot of anyone and the quicker you'd killed me the longer you would have had to escape." He blinked at me for a few seconds.

"I promise you I didn't bring you out here with the slightest intention of killing you."

"I mean, I'm not dead, so I'll just have to take that for what it's worth." I'm still not entirely sure, in the deep recesses of my brain where my common sense lies, that I should trust him, that I'm not just being suckered in by a pretty face. But as long as he isn't planning on doing anything I'm good to keep talking to this handsome stranger. "Who  _ are _ you, anyway?"

He sighs. "My name is Peter Nureyev. And yes, I'm with the rebels. A faction of them, at least." He looks back in the direction of the door and the hall. "I must say none of the royal parties I've been to before have made me doubt whether I'm on the right side."

"I mean, I can't really argue with you there. Not exactly stellar government." I half-laugh. It's more like a short of derision. "They've got about a hundredth of a brain between them, and less empathy."

"If I were to take a guess, I'd guess you don't like these people much," Nureyev said, half-joking.

"What gave it away?"

"Just a suspicion." Nureyev looks out over the city, and I can tell he's thinking about something. I'm about to say something when he asks "Do you want to leave?"

"What, the castle? The city? My family?"

"How much have you been out beyond the city?"

"A couple of times. Mom likes to keep close to the comforts of home."

"There's a lot more to the world than what you've seen."

"I know."

"I could show you, if you'd like." He takes a step back, standing at a distance where I can see his face properly.

“What?”

"It's simply an offer," Nureyev said. "I'm not going to try and make you to do anything, it just seems like you could be happier,  _ live _ more,  _ do  _ more if you weren't stuck here, and I think you know that." I look away, out across the city, trying to keep my face impassive as I think. He keeps talking. "Palaces and parties may be impressive, and I don't know if I can offer anything as glamorous as that. But I can offer the freedom to go where you want, do whatever your heart desires, to just be  _ you  _ rather than having to be Princess Juno Steel, Heir To The Throne all of the time."

I'll admit what he's suggesting isn't unappealing. Still, I'm not about to just run away from home because of a pretty face and a few insightful comments.

"Sounds kind of crazy," I say. "I can't just  _ leave. _ "

"Crazy isn't always a bad thing, Juno —"

"Fine, risky then."

"Where's the fun in things that aren't at least a little risky? Besides, you don't particularly strike me as the kind to spend your whole life playing it safe."

He's right, but I don't appreciate the implication that I'm that easy to read. "You barely know me, Nureyev."

He isn’t even slightly thrown. "And you haven't done or said a single thing that might have lead me to my conclusion in the time we've been talking?" I open my mouth to respond, then close it again. “I’m not going to lie and say coming with me would be safer, but don’t you want to  _ live _ rather than just surviving?” He gestures out to the city and the world beyond. “Don’t you want to be  _ free _ ? Because I’ve been given that chance, and I wouldn’t want to trade it for anything. Are you really saying you don’t want that, Juno?”

I let his words wash over me while I think. I’d be lying if I tried to say the concept (or Nureyev, for that matter) wasn’t attractive. But I  _ couldn’t _ go, and if I let him keep talking, I might just forget that. If I went with him, I’d probably end up turning tail and running back. I want to say something that sounds well thought out and not stubborn. I actually say “If I wanted to go and see the world that much, Nureyev, don’t you think I’d have done it myself by now? If I’m really as unhappy as you think I am, don’t you think I’d have run away by now? I’m a goddamn adult, I can make my own decisions. Do you think I’m such a pushover that I wouldn’t even do that ‘cause I’m scared of my  _ mom _ ?”

“No, I —”

“You know what? This — all of this —” I gesture back towards the palace — “it isn’t so bad.“

“Oh?” Nureyev replies. His frown flips to a grin. I can tell I’m not convincing him. So instead of admitting the truth, I break eye contact and I double down. “I’m having a bad day, sure, but that’s not because my life sucks. And sure, I might not be able to change much, but I can still do more than I could if I just ran away with you. So, yeah, I think I’m good.” I look back at him. He’s still grinning like he knows exactly how full of shit I am. I wait for him to say something, but now he seems happy to watch me dig myself deeper without interrupting me. I take a deep breath. “Look, Nureyev, I think you and the other rebels fighting for a better life is a good thing, and I’ll do as much as I can to help with that from in here, but being out there? That’s not really my thing.”

“And it’s not even worth trying? Seeing if you might be better suited to it than you think you are?”

“Not exactly the kind of thing you can test and drop if you don’t like it,” I said. I don’t want to know what my mother would do if I did what Nureyev’s suggesting. I’d at least want to get everyone I cared about out of the blast radius first, and Ben would never go. “I’m not so unhappy I’d put everything on the line and run off with a guy I just met. And sure, being heir isn’t exactly easy, but it’s not like I literally have nobody I can be myself around. I have my brother, and my… secretary? Personal servant? I don’t really know what to call her. And my friend who I think works in the… stables, at the moment?”

Nureyev raises an eyebrow. “Two entire people, one of whom is your brother, the other two who work for you. My, Juno, you really do lead a richer life than I’d assumed.”

“Hey, I’m doing fine! It’s not like there’s lots of people who have it better than me. Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but I’m pretty sure most people would take going to boring parties over starving while the ruler of the country goes to boring parties.”

“That’s not an unfair point. If it weren’t for the rest of our conversation, I might even believe you.”

“But?”

“But I think you know that trying to convince me that you want to spend the rest of your life at parties with people you don’t like isn’t going to work.”

“Do you know what would happen if I ran away with you, Nureyev? Hell, if anyone overheard our conversa—” A horrible thought suddenly came into my head and I turned around, scanned the hall and the roof and the windows of the rooms next to us —

“Calm down, Juno. Nobody’s listening. I already checked. And what’s the worst that could happen? Your mother getting angry while you’re too far away to hurt?”

“Not me I’m worried about. Besides, when she dies, I can’t exactly make things better if I’ve been disowned, and I don’t want to put that responsibility on Benzaiten.”

“Have you considered talking to your brother about it? If you want, I could come back in a few days. I don’t want to force you into a hasty decision you’ll regret later, Juno, but I also don’t want you to make this decision based on the assumption that you are the only one between Hyperion and a descent into abject chaos.” He takes hold of my hand, and the look on his face is so open and earnest it knocks me off guard for a second. “You’re a remarkable lady, Juno, and I believe no matter what you do, you could help many people, but not if your need to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders crushes you first. You’re allowed to have your own hopes, your own dreams — you’re allowed to think selfishly sometimes, and maybe you’ll realise how heavy the load is when some of it is lifted, to stretch the metaphor somewhat.” I can see him looking at my expression intently, watching for any signs as to what my decision is.

For a split second, I consider going with him. Leaving this place behind, and letting myself be me, rather than Princess Juno Steel. Letting myself go with Nureyev.

Then, suddenly, I can hear the music from the party again over my heartbeat in my ears and I can see past Nureyev to the city and I know I can't go. I can't just leave Benten. I can't just leave Hyperion to the mercies of my mother and every other person back there intent on staying at the top by draining everyone else for everything they're worth like a swarm of gaudy parasites.

"I… I can't go with you. It’s not about what I want — or even what Benten would want me to do — it just feels like I’d be abandoning people who need someone in here on their side." I laugh, bitterly. "I mean, I’m not much use, but I’m one of the only people who gets the kind of opportunity I have, and I can’t just throw that away. Besides, I couldn’t just leave without the people I care about being somewhere where Mom couldn’t just lash out at them, and that’s never going to happen.”

Nureyev looks sad for a moment. Resigned, like he knows there’s no point keeping on arguing with me. “Just… don’t forget what I’ve said here. I mean all of it, Juno.” He kisses me again. It’s shorter, over almost before I register it happening. “I’m sure we’ll meet again.” He lets go of my hand, and his sadness is replaced with determination. “I have someone I need to talk to. But if you change your mind, the offer will still be open.” He sits on the balcony and lifts one leg over.

“Take care of yourself, Nureyev.”

He laughs. “I could say the same to you.” He swings his other leg over the balcony, and hangs onto the edge. "Well, goodbye for now." And he drops off the edge of the balcony. I run over in time to see him land deftly on a tree branch. He stands up, looks back at me, blows me a kiss, and then Peter Nureyev vanishes into the night.

**Author's Note:**

> im @aesphantasmal on tumblr lol


End file.
